A collaborative search for wisdom, at Middle Tennessee State University and beyond...
"The pluralistic form takes for me a stronger hold on reality than any other philosophy I know of, being essentially a social philosophy, a philosophy of 'co'"-William James

Up@dawn 2.0

Sunday, April 2, 2017

1984 and its predictions that are slowly becoming true-Section 8

The book 1984 was written by George Orwell and published on
June the 8th, 1949. The basic premise of this book is that the party
that controls the government sees everything that everybody does. The look in
through telescreens and all the people can see is the leader, known as Big
Brother. If you were to go back in time to when this books was written and tell
someone that something eerily similar to this would eventually become a
terrifying reality, they would look at you as if you were crazy. Sadly, the
premise of this book is slowly starting to become a reality.

Less than a week ago, the Senate and House of Representatives
passed a bill that would make it so that private corporations could sell your
private information and internet browser history to the highest bidder without
your knowledge or consent. The only thing that stands between this bill
becoming law is our president Donald Trump. If he signs it, the bill becomes a
law. If, for whatever reason, President Trump decides to not sign it, it will
go back to the Senate and House of Representatives. Sadly, President Trump has
already stated that he plans on signing this bill.

Why did the Senate and House of Representatives decide to
pass a bill that was obviously bad for the American people? The answer is
simple. Money. An article written by Kevin Collier for Vocativ.com says that “they
(the internet providers) gave a total of at least $1,726,288 to those 22
senators — an average of more than half a million dollars per election cycle.”
It is sad that we live in a time where the people that we elect to represent
our best interest are willing to sell us out for an average of $78,467 per
senator that was paid.

The only reason this bill was passed by both the Senate and
House of Representatives is because of lobbying. Lobbying done by private
companies is almost always done to pass bills that hurt, not help, the American
people. I believe that a bill should be passed that would make lobbying illegal
for private companies.

It is absolutely insane that George Orwell was able to write
a story over half a century ago that is now becoming fact. The fact that he
took what at the time was probably thought of as an outlandish and scary idea
of a dystopian future and have it turn out to be kind of true is crazy. I
wonder if George Orwell saw the technologies that were being developed at the
time and knew that they would eventually be used for an invasion of privacy.

Back in January, the book had a huge resurgence in popularity
after the new president took office. It rose to the top of the best-sellers
list to the surprise of many. Companies started ordering as many copies as they
could get their hands on and the publisher even considered doing another
reprint. It is almost as if everybody knew that the new people in power would
make the book a reality.

In conclusion, the book 1984 was written at a time where the
story was looked at as an impossible dystopian future. Now however, with the
scary new bill being passed in both the Senate and House of Representatives,
the dystopian future is starting to look like a dystopian present.

1 comment:

"I wonder if George Orwell saw the technologies that were being developed at the time and knew that they would eventually be used for an invasion of privacy." Probably not. But he did see authoritarian humans lusting greedily for money and power, exploiting the primitive technologies of the time. It was a prescient but not implausible projection. Now we have to figure out how to use technology to preserve, not hinder freedom. It starts at the ballot box.

James Union Building

On nice days office hours may be outdoors, check my office door for details. And FYI: I reply to email mainly during office hours, but not at all on weekends. Best way to insure a prompt reply to any query: call or come in during office hours or designated appointment time.

"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind."

Love may fail, but courtesy will prevail.

0 replies64 retweets167 likes

Postponing the good life

“How many young college graduates have taken demanding jobs in high-powered firms, vowing that they will work hard to earn money that will enable them to retire and pursue their real interests when they are thirty-five? But by the time they reach that age, they have large mortgages, children to school, houses in the suburbs that necessitate at least two cars per family, and a sense that life is not worth living without really good wine and expensive holidays abroad. What are they supposed to do, go back to digging up roots? No, they double their efforts and keep slaving away.” ― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Pragmatic meliorism

...there are unhappy men who think the salvation of the world impossible. Theirs is the doctrine known as pessimism. Optimism in turn would be the doctrine that thinks the world's salvation inevitable. Midway between the two there stands what may be called the doctrine of meliorism... Meliorism treats salvation as neither inevitable nor impossible. It treats it as a possibility, which becomes more and more of a probability the more numerous the actual conditions of salvation become. It is clear that pragmatism must incline towards meliorism... Pragmatism: A New Name for an Old Way of Thinking

Albert Einstein

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. #Einstein

New Philosopher Magazine

The Philosophers' Magazine

Philosophy Now Magazine

Wonder & cosmic perspective

"Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder." Plato

"It was their wonder, astonishment, that first led men to philosophize and still leads them." Aristotle

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known... We are a way for the cosmos to know itself... it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." Carl Sagan

The cosmic perspective not only embraces our genetic kinship with all life on Earth but also values our chemical kinship with any yet-to-be discovered life in the universe, as well as our atomic kinship with the universe itself. Neil deGrasse Tyson

==

In the cosmic blink of our present existence, as we stand on this increasingly fragmented pixel, it is worth keeping the Voyager in mind as we find our capacity for perspective constricted by the stranglehold of our cultural moment. It is worth questioning what proportion of the news this year, what imperceptible fraction, was devoted to the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded for the landmark detection of gravitational waves — the single most significant astrophysical discovery since Galileo. After centuries of knowing the universe only by sight, only by looking, we can now listen to it and hear echoes of events that took place billions of lightyears away, billions of years ago — events that made the stardust that made us.

I don’t think it is possible to contribute to the present moment in any meaningful way while being wholly engulfed by it. It is only by stepping out of it, by taking a telescopic perspective, that we can then dip back in and do the work which our time asks of us. Maria Popova

"Two billion years ago, our ancestors were microbes; a half-billion years ago, fish, a hundred million years ago, something like mice; then million years ago, arboreal apes; and a million years ago, proto-humans puzzling out the taming of fire. Our evolutionary lineage is marked by mastery of change. In our time, the pace is quickening." Pale Blue Dot

Conceptual shotgun

Philosophy lives in words, but truth and fact well up into our lives in ways that exceed verbal formulation. There is in the living act of perception always something that glimmers and twinkles and will not be caught, and for which reflectioncomes too late. No one knows this as well as the philosopher. He must fire his volley of new vocables out of his conceptual shotgun, for his profession condemns him to this industry, but he secretly knows the hollowness and irrelevancy. His formulas are like stereoscopic or kinetoscopic photographs seen outside the instrument; they lack the depth, the motion, the vitality. In the religious sphere, in particular, belief that formulas are true can never wholly take the place of personal experience. Varieties of Religious Experience

Bertrand Russell

“Every morning Bertie would go for an hour’s walk by himself, composing and thinking out his work for that day. He would then come back and write for the rest of the morning, smoothly, easily and without a single correction." Gymnasiums of the Mind

Peripatetics

The original peripatetics were Aristotle's students at the Lyceum, back in the day. Legend has it that they didn't sit indoors in orderly rows like students nowadays, but instead roamed the grounds in small groups, walking-and-talking philosophy. I like their style, apocryphal or not. It’s a model we’ll emulate when the weather is nice enough, outdoors.

Would you be interested in joining a peripatetic Study Abroad summer course that involves walking and talking in England? Let me know...

"I feel I owe a debt to philosophy.

It liberated me; it gave me the courage to leave behind the comfort and security of a religious worldview, and provided me with a purpose I will be glad to pursue for the rest of my life...we need everyone “doing philosophy” more than we need the results of philosophy." Steve Neumann, The Stone blog

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

& grades, Spring 2018-

attendance and participation, which we'll track in personal logs and on a daily "scorecard" and reward with "bases" and "runs" whose final tally will contribute to final grade (4 bases = 1 run, earn up to 5 runs per class... but you have to come to class to get on base and score runs.

a longer (1,000+ words) final essay posted to the class blogsite in two installments, first installment due by last regular class, second installment due-date tba (but, three top runs leaders may do just one 1,000 word post)... worth up to 20 runs... link to your first installment and to at least two comments on classmates' first final report installments

Three 20-question exams based on the quizzes, worth one run per correct answer

comments on classmates' final reports (each comment on classmates' reports earns a base)

PARTICIPATION is the single largest grading factor: you can earn up to 5 participation "runs" per class, via attendance, quizzes, discussion, and posts to this site. Relevant comments, links, and questions for discussion or the quiz posted before class each earn a base. Be sure to post comments on the group discussions you participate in.

Collaborative MIDTERM GROUP REPORT PRESENTATIONS (2-3 reporters to a group, 10-20 minutes), worth up to 20 runs. Include quiz & discussion questions on your report topic. Possible topics include any pre-Descartes philosopher, one of the recommended texts, Stone or This I Believe essay(s)...

FINAL SOLO REPORTS (1,000 words) in two blog post installments, including relevant graphics, videos, and links) are also worth up to 20 runs. Possible topics include any post-Descartes philosopher, further development of midterm report topic, a StoryCorps interview/essay, or an imaginary dialogue between yourself and one or two philosophers.

The top three run-scorers of the semester are exempt from a second final report installment (but may still post for extra credit).

Presentations, like group discussions, will follow the peripatetic model whenever weather permits. So, post all supplemental and supportive multimedia material on our site in advance and be prepared to report like a peripatetic, in the open air.

Count your total bases each class and divide by 4, to determine your daily runs total. Keep track of any extra bases in your personal log, they don't carry over and accumulate (just as runners left on base after the third out each inning don't get to score, but are "stranded") but they do impress the teacher.

PHONE POLICY. It should go without saying, but for some does not: put your phone away during class. Participate. If you cannot comply with this, you'll be asked to leave and will be marked absent.

MAKE-UP POLICY. You cannot earn bases or runs from the quizzes on days when you are not present, but you can submit extra-credit blog posts of 500 words (minimum) on topics covered when you were absent, worth up to three runs, to be posted within one week of the class date you missed. Log the date you missed and the date when you posted. You can then claim 3 make-up runs on the scorecard for the day you missed, unless I tell you otherwise.

Grades

FAQ-How do you grade?

"Well, I add up the grades for the essays, quizzes, the midterm and final. I average them out. Then I consult my stomach."

That's how someone else puts it. Here's how I do:

Those with the most RUNS are guaranteed an A. If you finish within the 90th percentile of the 3d-highest run scorer, you're safe at the plate.

Others will probably also receive A's based on exceptional report and exam scores and participation.

You get a BASE for every correct daily QUIZ answer, every posted comment, discussion question, alternate quiz question, relevant link, etc.), a RUN for every four BASES, a RUN for each weekly essay (250+ words), a RUN for each correct answer on the three EXAMS, and up to 20 RUNS on each of the two REPORTS. The maximum possible runs per class is 5. Top run-scorers typically average 4-5 runs per class.

Scorecards, & how to play the game

Can't tell the players without a scorecard.

We'll track daily participation with baseball-style scorecards. But our game's much easier than the national pastime, all you have to do to get to 1st base is show up for class. Each class date is a column or "inning" on the scorecard. Simply showing up to class gets you to 1st base. Mark your scorecard accordingly. Now you're eligible to collect more bases and score up to 5 runs per class (runs=participation points, 4 bases = 1 run).

Collect a base for each relevant comment, question, or link you posted before class, and for each correct quiz answer.

Be sure to post comments on group discussions you participated in.

Collect a base if you started the computer/projector & opened this site in our classroom before class.

Collect a base if you do something else that impresses the professor.

How to post. Eventually, everyone will have an opportunity to sign up as an "author" on our site. Until then, post your questions, comments, links, etc. in the current "comments" section under the quiz. Or, post via a classmate's author account (click on "new post" in the upper right.)

Granny Rice

"When the last great scorer comes to mark against your name, it matters not if you won or lost, but how you played the game."Grantland Rice (Murfreesboro's most famous son)

4. Write your quiz answers on a separate sheet of paper and bring it to class, where we'll go over them. You get a base for each correct quiz answer.

We'll split into discussion groups of two or three for a portion of our class time, when we can. If you are physically restricted, or just prefer not to participate, an alternative indoor assignment will be provided... or you and like-minded others can form a sedentary indoor discussion group.

Daily Quiz

We'll do daily quizzes consisting of at least 4 questions, posted before class on our site by me and supplemented (in the comments section) by you. Each correct quiz answer earns a base. 4 bases = 1 run.

Why a daily quiz? Because philosophy is all about the questions, and because "frequent quizzes can deepen learning" (see "How to Study" below).

And note: "One reason scientists suspect that studying in pairs or groups can be helpful is that students are forced to talk to one another about the material-or better yet, argue about it... [this] deepens learning more than passively rereading or reviewing the material" alone. Hence, the rationale for our quiz-and-collaboration course format.

Also: three exams (each worth 20+ runs) will be drawn from the daily quizzes.

And besides, it's fun.

Questions & Links etc.

QUIZ QUESTIONS, DISCUSSION QUESTIONS. An example of a QQ: “Was it Plato or Aristotle who presented the Allegory of the Cave in his book The Republic?” [Plato]. A DQ might be: “Who do you think had a better understanding of reality and how we can discover it, Plato or Aristotle? Why?”

Notice, this hypothetical student needed just two more bases to collect the maximum 5 runs on this date. Moral of the story: always try to do just a bit more.

==

If you're one of the top three run-scorers of the semester, as determined on the last class date, you only have to do one final report installment of about 500 words. Everyone else does two installments totaling 1,000 words (minimum).

Word counts

Publish a 200-word (minimum) post each week (in reply to a current discussion question, something said in class, something you read, etc.) for one run. Your final report should be 1,000 words (minimum) split into two posted installments.

"Solvitur ambulando"

It’s a Latin phrase that literally means, “It is solved by walking.” Or, a little more loosely, “It is solved by walking around"... There was a time in which writers and philosophers wrote poems and paeans to the humble walk, publishing books and essays with titles such as “The Reveries of the Solitary Walker,” “In Praise of Walking,” and “Walking as a Fine Art.” Bipedal locomotion was referred to as “the manly art of walking,” and enrollment in the “noble army of walkers” was encouraged... (continues)

Poetic Naturalism

Naturalism comes down to three things.

1. There is only one world, the natural world.

2. The world evolves according to unbroken patterns, the laws of nature.

3. The only reliable way of learning about the world is by observing it.

...The poetic aspect can also be summarized in three aspects.

1. There are many ways of talking about the world.

2. All good ways of talking must be consistent with one another and the world.

FREE PHILOSOPHY TUTORING

We now have two peer tutors (undergrad philosophy majors) standing by to assist in answering your questions, helping you think about your assignments, and generally strengthening your philosophical acumen. And it's free! You'll find them in the library at these times:

What is college for? ..."To be sure, material benefits are essential to a complete vision of human flourishing. Yet our default vision of the good life today is too often restricted to consideration of material accomplishment – resumés, salaries, and zip codes. If we do not have a rich understanding of what education is for, we’ll lose more than mere enrollment counts. We don’t need merely smarter, wealthier, or more politically civilized people. We need good people. We need higher education to reclaim its distinctive role in moral formation – in the transition from youth to adulthood – situated at the crossroads of family, religious community, workplace, and state. The task now is renewing the conversation about the sorts of excellence that characterize the good people we want to form. Education without moral vision is no education at all." OUP blog=="The study of philosophy cultivates a healthy scepticism about the moral opinions, political arguments and economic reasonings with which we are daily bombarded by ideologues, churchmen, politicians and economists. It teaches one to detect ‘higher forms of nonsense’, to identify humbug, to weed out hypocrisy, and to spot invalid reasoning. It curbs our taste for nonsense, and gives us a nose for it instead. It teaches us not to rush to affirm or deny assertions, but to raise questions about them.

Even more importantly, it teaches us to raise questions about questions, to probe for their tacit assumptions and presuppositions, and to challenge these when warranted. In this way it gives us a distance from passion-provoking issues – a degree of detachment that is conducive to reason and reasonableness." Why Study Philosophy==When to declare a major. Here's a Vandy philosopher's advice: "Told incoming frosh today that she should declare a major only after she'd learned enough to be disgusted with the way the world is." @RobertTalisse

Naked Eye Observatory

Prior to the invention of the telescope astronomy was done with the naked eye. Ever on the cutting edge, MTSU has its own 30-meter diameter, Naked Eye Observatory...

Philosophy Club

The MTSU Philosophy Club has fallen into a state of inanition, torpidity, or possibly even non-existence. WOULD YOU LIKE TO REVIVE IT? If you're interested in becoming involved with the next iteration of the club, let me know.

Here's the apparently-final missive from the club's last-known leader:

A NOTE FROM THE FORMER PREZ: "I am Blake Welker, your new Philosophy club president. I would like the club to be an academic and social resource. We are planning on starting a journal! We are looking for any submissions about anything relating to your perceptive experience. If you have a submission or question please email me atjbw4r@mtmail.mtsu.edu."

Last Days of Socrates Usefully annotated and hyperlinked edition of Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo.

Pale Blue Dot: a vision of the human future in space Carl Sagan’s spiritual vision of our future. He likes William James’s definition of religion, ” a feeling of being at home in the universe.” But “if we mean the real universe, then we have no true religion yet.”

Teaching Doubt

One thing is certain: if our educational system does not honestly and explicitly promote the central tenet of science—that nothing is sacred—then we encourage myth and prejudice to endure. We need to equip our children with tools to avoid the mistakes of the past while constructing a better, and more sustainable, world for themselves and future generations. We won’t do that by dodging inevitable and important questions about facts and faith. Instead of punting on those questions, we owe it to the next generation to plant the seeds of doubt." Lawrence M. Krauss, "Teaching Doubt"-The New Yorker

Courage!

Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another. this immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! “Have courage to use your own understanding!”–that is the motto of enlightenment. Kant

StoryCorps

Here's a final report option: go to the StoryCorps website and read about StoryCorps. Get the StoryCorps app. Use it to record an interview with an older person (grandparent, maybe) you consider wise. Ask them the sorts of questions we've been asking ourselves this semester in CoPhi. Share the result with us, in your final report blog posts, and with posterity.

"This I Believe"

Another final report option: Read and listen to others' "This I Believe" essays, and post your own (as I did-see below), at their website and on ours. I did. (May be time to update this...)

I believe that humans have a bright future among the stars. A 12-year old boy might have been excused, on July 20, 1969, for picturing the world of 2009 as far closer to Captain Kirk’s than this. The “space race” had been run and won in a few focused frenetic years, from Sputnik in the […]

Top Ten Living Philosophers

Hybrid philosopher

My ideal philosopher would be a combination of Socrates, Diogenes, and David Hume with a dash of Nietzsche.

John Dewey on experience, education, and the continuous human community

“What the best and wisest parent wants for his child, that must we want for all the children of the community. Anything less is unlovely, and left unchecked, destroys our democracy.” The School and Society

“The things in civilization we most prize are not of ourselves. They exist by grace of the doings and sufferings of the continuous human community in which we are a link. Ours is the responsibility of conserving, transmitting, rectifying and expanding the heritage of values we have received, that those who come after us may receive it more solid and secure, more widely accessible and more generously shared than we have received it.” A Common Faith

Where are the women? Up until relatively recently, they weren't invited into the conversation. But I'm doing my homework. Thanks to Jennifer Michael Hecht's wonderful Doubt: A History, I know the names of some 19th century women who'd likely have become favorites of mine and many others, in a better world: Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner, Annie Besant, Ernestine Rose, Etta Semple, Helen Hamilton Gardener...

The School of Life

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Your podcast here?

Podcasting is an easy way to find your voice and share your ideas. The Opinion podcastingapp is free from iTunes and easy to use. If you decide to try it, or any other podcasting platform, send me the link and we'll add your podcast to our CoPhi site right here. Then, your classmates and I can post our comments on what we hear from you.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts...

There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.HDT

Jefferson the Stoic-Epicurean

"Before he attained domestic happiness he had probably worked out his enduring philosophy of life; it was marked by cheerfulness not gloom, and he afterwards described it as Epicurean, though he hastened to say that the term was much misunderstood. He came to believe that happiness was the end of life, but, as has been said, he was engaged by the "peculiar conjunction of duty with happiness"; and his working philosophy was a sort of blend of Epicureanism and Stoicism, in which the goal of happiness was attained by self-discipline."

What university life is supposed to be about

For Jefferson, William and Mary was largely about what university life is supposed to be about: reading books, enjoying the company of the like~minded. and savoring teachers who seem to be ambassadors from other, richer. brighter worlds. Jon Meacham

Coming

Coming Summer 2018: MALA 6040, Evolution in America: a course studying the cultural, social, historical, and philosophical impact of the theory of evolution in America and specifically in Tennessee, possibly including a field-trip to Dayton, TN (site of the infamous 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" and of an annual dramatic reenactment). Texts include Edward Larson's account of that event, Summer for the Gods, and Matthew Chapman's Trials of the Monkey (he is Charles Darwin's great-great...grandson, a Brit who made a pilgrimage to Dayton himself, and wrote about it). We'll look at why the idea of evolution has encountered both enthusiasm and hostility in this country, and at the prospects for peaceful coexistence between evolutionary science and religious faith in the future.

"To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing"

Writing Center

The Margaret H. Ordoubadian University Writing Center (UWC) is open now to help your students become better writers, regardless of their skills or academic levels. The UWC is located in Room 362 of the Walker Library (above Starbucks and on the third floor).

Students can visit www.mtsu.edu/writing-center to schedule an appointment and to learn more about our services. They can also find us listed under the letter W in the MTSU A-Z Directory.

We have 25 writing consultants who work with students, and during our scheduled hours, we offer one-on-one appointments in the UWC and on-line appointments. We do not merely proofread or edit students’ writing; we help them learn about composing and editing concepts so they can become independent writers.

Other services we offer are: Culture and Conversation Group Sessions (primarily for English Language Learners), Creative Writing Sessions (for those interested in writing poetry or prose), Writers’ Studio (for students who need help with any aspect of writing a paper), Test Preparation Groups (to prepare for PRAXIS and other exams), Multi-Media Composition Center (to help students incorporate media in their papers or presentations), and other programs needed by our students, such as resume writing. We also offer Writing Partnerships in which a student meets with the same consultant at the same time and day of each week. The partnership program helps students who need long-term consultations.

Please e-mail us or call the UWC Front Desk (904-8237) if you need further information. We promote student success, as you do, and offer special help for he MT Engage Program.

Dr. Bene S. Cox, Director, 898-2921

Dr. James Hamby, Associate Director, 494-8932

Prof. Keri Carter, Assistant Director, 898-5565

Alt-wrong

How to prepare for an exam: relax

If you want really to do your best in an examination, fling away the book the day before, say to yourself, “I won’t waste another minute on this miserable thing, and I don’t care an iota whether I succeed or not.” Say this sincerely, and feel it; and go out and play, or go to bed and sleep, and I am sure the results next day will encourage you to use the method permanently. William James, “Gospel of Relaxation"

If you’ve been up all night cramming, in other words, good luck. You’ll need it. But if you’ve been diligent, have steeped yourself in the subject all semester long, and either went out to play or to an early bed the night before, your luck will be the residue of design. You’ll do fine. Relax.

But don’t try too hard to relax.

It is needless to say that that is not the way to do it. The way to do it, paradoxical as it may seem, is genuinely not to care whether you are doing it or not.

Care later. On exam day just show up and do your best.

Step By Step Instructions to Embed a PDF On Blogger

Upload to Google Docs

1. Open the Google Docs website (link in Resources), and then sign in with your Google Account to open your Drive page.

2. Click the "Upload" button in the Drive sidebar and then select "Files" in the drop-down list to open the Choose File to Upload window.

3. Click the PDF file you want to upload. The Upload Complete window displays the selected PDF file link and the Uploaded status.

4. Click "Share" to open the Sharing Settings window, and then click "Change" to open the Visibility Options section. Select the radio button for "Public on the Web" and then click "Save" and then click "Done."

5. Click the PDF link in the Upload Complete window to open the PDF in a window.

6. Click the "File" tab on the PDF ribbon, and then select "Embed This PDF File" to open the window with the HTML code.

From Google to Blogger

1. Open your Blogger page in a new browser window or tab, and then click the "Create New Post" button to open the Post window. Click the "HTML" tab.

2. Click inside the Google Docs HTML window from the previous section to highlight the embed code, right-click to open the selected text and then select "Copy" in the resulting menu.

3. Right-click in the Blogger post window and then click "Paste" to paste the HTML code.

4. Click the "Preview" button on the Blogger Post window to preview the opened PDF on your Blogger layout in a new window. Click "Publish" to post your blog.

5. Click "OK" on the Google Docs window to close the window with the HTML code.

-Kevin Andres

Plato's cave

An hour not wasted

"A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life."

On the other hand,

"if I had to live my life again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept active through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness..." -Charles Darwin

Philosophy videos

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Philosophy funnies

Philosophy timeline

Cosmic Timeline

From Carl Sagan's "Dragons of Eden"...

Cosmic Calendar (video)

"Two billion years ago, our ancestors were microbes; a half-billion years ago, fish, a hundred million years ago, something like mice; then million years ago, arboreal apes; and a million years ago, proto-humans puzzling out the taming of fire. Our evolutionary lineage is marked by mastery of change. In our time, the pace is quickening.

How to Study (and why you shouldn't "cram")

Does a good grade always mean a student has learned the material? And does a bad grade mean a student just needs to study more?

In the new book “How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens” (Random House), Benedict Carey, a science reporter for The New York Times, challenges the notion that a high test score equals true learning. He argues that although a good grade may be achieved in the short term by cramming for an exam, chances are that most of the information will be quickly lost. Indeed, he argues, most students probably don’t need to study more — just smarter.

Mr. Carey offers students old and young a new blueprint for learning based on decades of brain science, memory tests and learning studies. He upends the notion that “hitting the books” is all that is required to be a successful student, and instead offers a detailed exploration of the brain to reveal exactly how we learn, and how we can maximize that potential.

“Most of us study and hope we are doing it right,” Mr. Carey says. “But we tend to have a static and narrow notion of how learning should happen.”

...tests of varying scale and intensity can deepen learning. “We now know that testing, including self-testing, is an especially powerful form of study,” said Dr. Roediger, co-author of the book “Make It Stick.”

How so? Because retrieving facts, formulas or concepts is a threefold mental act: finding the sought-after information in the vast catacombs of the brain; bringing it consciously to mind; and finally, storing it. That newly stored memory will be embedded in a host of additional associations and connections and be much easier to recall later than if you’d merely read it again... One reason scientists suspect that studying in pairs or groups can be helpful is that students are forced to talk to one another about the material — or better yet, argue about it. These are all forms of self-examination, and as such deepen learning more than passively rereading or reviewing the material. The brain is an exotic learning machine, to put it mildly. It does not take orders well. You can tell it to remember the major players in the settling of Manhattan, stress how crucially important that is, and on the test a week later very little comes back. And yet you might remember nearly every play in the San Francisco Giants’ Game 7 World Series victory. Why? Because the brain doesn’t listen to what you say; it watches what youdo. And thinking often about Madison Bumgarner pitching, talking about the game, arguing about it: These are mental actions, as well as subtle forms of testing knowledge.

Testing in all its permutations, subtle and otherwise, convinces the brain that the knowledge is useful, and important. And by varying one’s testing strategies, the actual final exam — the dreaded assessment — isn’t nearly as scary.

Use the Study Guide. Don't just memorize stuff. Read, think, re-read, reflect, maybe write a few notes (because writing wires the brain's memory circuits), then relax and get some sleep. Sometimes life is a ballgame, sometimes it's an examination, but you're always better at it when rested and ready... (continues)

Collaborating with Evernote

On Bullshit

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, or attracted much sustained inquiry. In consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, we have no theory. I propose to begin the development of a theoretical understanding of bullshit, mainly by providing some tentative and exploratory philosophical analysis... continues... Bullshit and Philosophy

Good luck!

Good luck with your goals! But, "Whether or not we achieve our goals, in fact, is not the essential matter. We aren't going to wait until we've reached all our objectives before we start being happy. The path matters more than the goal: happiness comes as we make our journey." Happiness: A Philosopher's Guide

And, as Emerson said, we must seek to "find the journey's end in every step."==Sapere Aude ("have the courage to think")... Don't stop asking questions! (But don't ask about your grade until May 14 , please.)

**How do you grade?

The last question many of you ask during the semester is,"How do you determine a student's grade?"--

**"Well, I add up the grades for the essays, quizzes, the midterm and final. I average them out. Then I consult my stomach."

That's what the late Fred Stocking, Williams College Shakespearian scholar, told his student (now NPR reporter) Barbara Bradley Hagerty. And it's now my stock answer to the perennial question too.I also look at how many runs (= participation points) you scored, of course. That's half your grade.But this has not all been about a grade. Again: sapere aude!

And some final parting words, from Monty Python's Meaning of Life: "get some fresh air, go for a walk, read a good book now and then..."And from Kurt Vonnegut: "Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind."

Previously

Spring 2018

CoPhilosophy returns to MTSU Jan.16, 2018... make that 18, postponed by weather. Post your introduction, & read your classmates'... Answer two questions (bearing in mind that this is an open site): Who are you? and Why are you here (in school, in a philosophy class, in middle Tennessee... whatever you'd like to share)?